Are there any special instructions to knit with ribbon, also are there any books on it?
I have the pattern and ribbon yarn but don't what to do anything until I find out. Thank You, Syl

You knit with ribbon yarn like you would normally.
Welcome to the forum!

If you knit with woven ribbon, be careful. Somebody gave me a package of Lana Grossa India recently. It is beautiful ribbon yarn, in all kinds of blues blending together. It was quick discontinued and i soon found out why, and why she gave it to me. A check on the internet told me you have to knit it with slippery needles otherwise you snarl up pieces of the ribbon. And it tends to fray, and it needs to be handwashed.
But I still like it. I think. Now i have to find a pattern of a top. All i can find are shawls or bags.

In short: check the internet for more information on your ribbon. Google helped me a lot. If your ribbon is a woven ribbon, use slippery needles to prevent snarls. Whilst knitting take time to un-curl your ribbon, otherwise is will start looking like normal yarn. Take care to make a knot everytime you cut the ribbon to prevent fraying. If your ribbon has an open texture, use blunt needles to prevent poking in the yarn. This will give you holes that stay !

This sounds like a lot of problems, but most of the ribbons behave like they are "normal" yarn. It is like with any new yarn you try. You just have to learn how to have it behave the way you want it to.
Yarn, pets and children are all the same. You have to teach them how to behave, adept yourself to their behavior, and if all else fails, give them away. Oh wait, you can't do that with kids. Sigh.

Do you have to keep it flat? Does it matter if it gets twisted? Trying to keep it flat is really a job but if that is the way it is to be knitted so be it, just want to do it right. Know what I mean? Syl

You only have to untwist it every few rows. If your yarn it on a ball you can roll, let it roll. This way it does'nt twist as much. Elizabeth Zimmerman used a nice trick to uncurl her yarn. Hard to explain in text, but it is on her dvd "knitting workshop" if i remember correctly.

Ribbon is often gorgeous and it is just as often pretty stinky to work with. The only way I've had luck with with the twisting is to pin the yarn firmly to the ball and then dangle it to let it untwist. That India was stunning, wasn't it? I had scarlet shading into gold and burgandy, but it was really easy to damage.

I would like to thank everyone for their help. I would say fingers crossed but that would get in the way of my knitting. LOL

quote:

Originally posted by sylsknitting:
Do you have to keep it flat? Does it matter if it gets twisted? Trying to keep it flat is really a job but if that is the way it is to be knitted so be it, just want to do it right. Know what I mean? Syl

Don't try to control woven ribbon yarn too much. You can go to great lengths to keep it flat (pulling it through a slit in a box, for instance)but I don't think it makes much difference in the finished fabric. Just by knitting you are putting some twist into it; it's the nature of the yarn. What you have to watch out for are tight, kinky knots that occur if the yarn becomes too tightly twisted. When you see that beginning to happen, just hold the ball of yarn in the air and let the knitted piece untwist itself. It's sort of fun to watch it twirl until it relaxes.

A lot of woven ribbon yarns, rayon in particular, are very slippery. Like dutch_marja, I like smooth metal needles like Addis, but if you find it frustrating to try to keep the stitches on the needle, try plastic or coated needles like Denise or Inox or Bryspun.

The one real difficulty I find with ribbon is joining it. Some ribbons will slip right out of a knot or a woven join. In a jacket I made of Piatina, a discontinued rayon ribbon, I had to make a small tight knot in the two ends, weave them into the fabric, then sew the ends in place. A pain, but it worked. One more thing: some rayon ribbons stretch a lot and it makes sense to reinforce shoulder seams with a row of slip-stitch crochet or sew on a piece of grosgrain ribbon to prevent the sleeves from "growing" down to your knees.[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]

If the ribbon wants to fray, a spot of Fraychek (which is liquid nylon that hardens) on the ends will help control that. Don't use much as you don't want a big lumpy bump. I once knitted two swatches, very carefully straightening the ribbon (wide, 1/2" dressmaker's ribbon) for each stitch on one swatch, and just knitting the other as the ribbon came. There was so little difference in the way they appeared that it seems not worth it to me to try to straighten ribbons. If you take the spool or ball and insert a straight needle through the center, then tug on the outside strand so the ball or spool turns around the needle, it limits extra twisting. I just wind a bunch of loose yards to the floor, then repeat when I have knitted all of that up. Only works if you don't have animals!